Best Regeneration Story
- Thread starter EJA
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Planet Of The Spiders has the all time greatest hovercraft chase ever... 
Although, to some degree, I'd say that the Watcher in "Logopolis" was predated by that weird monk in "Planet of the Spiders."
Planet Of The Spiders has the all time greatest hovercraft chase ever...
Agreed!
During that whole sequence, it felt like Jon Pertwee was ticking off a checklist of all the vehicles he wanted to get a chance to drive before he left the series.I just recently watched "Planet of the Spiders" and I think it's a pretty fun story.
For my favorite, I voted for "The Parting of the Ways." Yes, super-Rose is a bit of a cop-out but the series felt fresh enough at that point that I'm willing to forgive it (moreso than the Jesus-Doctor at the end of "Last of the Time Lords"). Eccleston's farewell is a nice moment. It has gravitas and yet doesn't feel too drawn out. "You were fantastic! Absolutely fantastic! And you know what else? So was I." I knew I would miss him but I also knew that the Doctor would continue in a way that I was comfortable with. Plus, up until the super-Rose ending, I think "Bad Wolf"/"The Parting of the Ways" is a very good Dalek story.
I like "The War Games" but it drags on way too long.
I need to rewatch "The Caves of Androzani." When I first watched it, I didn't like it much, mostly because I don't like Peri. Also, I hadn't yet acclimated to Peter Davison's Doctor. (At that time, the only other Davison stories I'd seen had been "Castrovalva" & "The Five Doctors.")
"Time & the Rani" is a very mediocre story.
I still haven't seen "The Tenth Planet."
It's been a while since I've seen the Paul McGann movie.
I can't stand "The End of Time." The stuff with Wilf was pretty good as well as
briefly resurrecting the Time Lords
GOOD: Martha & Mickey got married!
BAD: The Captain Jack cameo. After where we left him at the end of "Children of Earth," I feel like his next appearance needed to be something with a lot more heft, not a throw-away cameo.
I didn't even know about this thread....
I've not seen much of Classic Who but I have seen all the regenerations and my favourite is The End of Time simply because the drawn out saga just was playing on the emotions of fans and it was painful but in a good way
. The Doctors last words and the raw power of his regeneration just makes it perfect every time...
Murray's music was spot on too for that scene.
I've not seen much of Classic Who but I have seen all the regenerations and my favourite is The End of Time simply because the drawn out saga just was playing on the emotions of fans and it was painful but in a good way
. The Doctors last words and the raw power of his regeneration just makes it perfect every time...Murray's music was spot on too for that scene.
I voted Caves, but now that I know its winning by miles I wished I'd voted for the movie, mostly just cos it was my first one.
I haven't see most of them but I did quite like Bad wolf, wouldn't vote for it though, dues ex super rose spoils the lead up and I thought Tennant spoilt his regen by a temper tantrum name calling and then the longest death scene in history. Seriously, couldn't he have been poisoned or something? He started his regen and then dropped Wilf off, had a spot of tea, filled out his will, visited all his friends and then exploded, for some reason.
Planet was quite good, war games and Logopolis I can't really remember
I haven't see most of them but I did quite like Bad wolf, wouldn't vote for it though, dues ex super rose spoils the lead up and I thought Tennant spoilt his regen by a temper tantrum name calling and then the longest death scene in history. Seriously, couldn't he have been poisoned or something? He started his regen and then dropped Wilf off, had a spot of tea, filled out his will, visited all his friends and then exploded, for some reason.
Planet was quite good, war games and Logopolis I can't really remember
Yeah. In some ways, I think it would have been simpler and more effective if, after all the fancy exploding CGI particle effects for Eccleston's regeneration into Tennant and the Master's regeneration in "Utopia," they'd gone with a quicker, FX-less regeneration in "The End of Time." Like, once the Doctor is exposed to the radiation and curls up on the floor, when Wilf goes to him, the Doctor picks up his head and is suddenly Matt Smith.
Don't know if I'm supposed to be spoiler coding this, don't really no how, so....
SPOILER!
I was kind of expecting that, well I thought they were gonna go with some well acted wrath of Khan rip-off then regen but I had sorta lost interest with the name calling tantrum before that, once he walked out I spent the remainder of the ep calling for him to get on with it.
I didn't mind them using the same sort of effect, it helped keep consistency and all that. I was just puzzled why after the Doctor could regenerate in there and the Master and both be fine (in the new series) and yet Tennant blew the whole thing up. I reckon it was Tens ego escaping.
SPOILER!
I was kind of expecting that, well I thought they were gonna go with some well acted wrath of Khan rip-off then regen but I had sorta lost interest with the name calling tantrum before that, once he walked out I spent the remainder of the ep calling for him to get on with it.
I didn't mind them using the same sort of effect, it helped keep consistency and all that. I was just puzzled why after the Doctor could regenerate in there and the Master and both be fine (in the new series) and yet Tennant blew the whole thing up. I reckon it was Tens ego escaping.
Real-World reason? New show runner + new Doctor + HD production = new set. In-Universe reason? No idea. Any amount of explanations could fit. Doesn't matter.
Huh, it worked for me. It was like he had put up a dam against the regenerative energies and they kept building and building until his dam just burst, forcing it all out far more suddenly and violently than his previous one. The 'tantrum' worked for me too. The regeneration process can't be entirely pleasant, and being forced to change against your will is never going to be on many people's christmas wish list. Part of it was certainly ego, with 10 realizing he was just as fallible and mortal as he had ever been. It worked for the character, and made for a very emotional end to his story.
Haven't seen the first three on the list, but of the others I chose
The Parting Of The Ways; an intense roller-coaster on an epic canvas and full of firsts for the series. I like the use of the title format "The X of the Y" to refer to the Doctor sending Rose home rather than another Dalek title.
The Parting Of The Ways; an intense roller-coaster on an epic canvas and full of firsts for the series. I like the use of the title format "The X of the Y" to refer to the Doctor sending Rose home rather than another Dalek title.
RTD said if I remember it was the end of an era in so many ways, DT was many people's Doctor despite being the 2nd of the RTD era because he stuck around longer than a year. We got to know him more so his death meant so much more plus RTD was leaving as was many of the staff who had worked on Who over the past 5 years. Moffat wanted an excuse to redesign the Tardis as well so make it big and blow everything up never fails 
I liked 10th Doctor fighting against dying because at the end of the day you just accepting it seems too mellow for well the biggest day of your life, the day you die. Not too mention after Doctor shouted and ranted at the Universe he did just walk in and save Wilf and theres never nothing wrong with saying I don't want to go, DT was reflecting our own emotions.
I liked 10th Doctor fighting against dying because at the end of the day you just accepting it seems too mellow for well the biggest day of your life, the day you die
. Not too mention after Doctor shouted and ranted at the Universe he did just walk in and save Wilf and theres never nothing wrong with saying I don't want to go, DT was reflecting our own emotions.
I've seen them all except for, obviously, The Tenth Planet. I know a lot of people love The Caves of Androzani but while I don't dislike it, I've never been that huge a fan of it (part of me thinks it's so acclaimed in part because of the rather abrupt drop-off in overall quality that occurred immediately after).
As for the others, The War Games was interesting but 6 episodes too long (with the best stuff in the final episode). Planet of the Spiders wasn't very memorable except for the regeneration. Logopolis was a great story, and I loved the idea of working entropy into it, so it's a strong 2nd place on my list.
The movie was entertaining but somewhat wrong-handed. I agree with McCoy they should have saved the regeneration for an episode of the proposed series.
The less said about Time and the Rani, the better.
Parting of the Ways was fantastic and very much deserves the 3rd place finish, almost tied with Logopolis. It was an excellent way to reintroduce the concept of regeneration. It may have actually made 1st place if the BBC themselves had spoiled what was reportedly intended to have been an utter surprise for viewers. Had they pulled it off, on that criteria alone it would have ranked #1.
So that leaves End of of Time as the best regeneration story, in my opinion. For one thing it actually addressed what regeneration really means to the Doctor, and it perfectly illustrates how Doctor Who has matured and evolved. At the same time it is audacious and funny with the Master Race schtick. But it also has Timothy Dalton perfectly cast as Rassilon and the return of the Time Lords (even if only for a few minutes). It has the best-handled regeneration of all time because for once the Doctor wasn't rushed into it and he was able to say goodbye properly. And above all else, it has something none of the other stories can claim: Bernard Cribbins. 'Nuff said at that point, really!
Alex
As for the others, The War Games was interesting but 6 episodes too long (with the best stuff in the final episode). Planet of the Spiders wasn't very memorable except for the regeneration. Logopolis was a great story, and I loved the idea of working entropy into it, so it's a strong 2nd place on my list.
The movie was entertaining but somewhat wrong-handed. I agree with McCoy they should have saved the regeneration for an episode of the proposed series.
The less said about Time and the Rani, the better.
Parting of the Ways was fantastic and very much deserves the 3rd place finish, almost tied with Logopolis. It was an excellent way to reintroduce the concept of regeneration. It may have actually made 1st place if the BBC themselves had spoiled what was reportedly intended to have been an utter surprise for viewers. Had they pulled it off, on that criteria alone it would have ranked #1.
So that leaves End of of Time as the best regeneration story, in my opinion. For one thing it actually addressed what regeneration really means to the Doctor, and it perfectly illustrates how Doctor Who has matured and evolved. At the same time it is audacious and funny with the Master Race schtick. But it also has Timothy Dalton perfectly cast as Rassilon and the return of the Time Lords (even if only for a few minutes). It has the best-handled regeneration of all time because for once the Doctor wasn't rushed into it and he was able to say goodbye properly. And above all else, it has something none of the other stories can claim: Bernard Cribbins. 'Nuff said at that point, really!
Alex
"The Parting Of The Ways" followed by "The End Of Time..." and Ten's death scene was the best.
They wanted a new Doctor that would be more appealing to a broader audience, so it was either regenerate him in the movie or just ignore regeneration completely and have the 8th doc anyways. Replacing your lead a few episodes into a series isn't exactly the best tactic either, especially on network TV in the US.
I chalk it up to all the radiation he absorbed in the chamber. Last time, in Smith and Jones, he had to expel it from his body, working it out like a splinter (and irradiating his left shoe in the process). This was a whole hell of a lot more radiation, and he couldn't very well just work it out on Earth and create another Chernobyl in the process, so he held it in and let it out into the TARDIS while it was safe in space where it could take the damage without harming anything else.
Hell, we might even use that to explain why it took so long before he finally went glowy, but I don't think there's much need for that. There were cuts in more than one prior regeneration where the process could've taken several hours; "Planet of the Spiders," "The Enemy Within," and "The Parting of the Ways."
I believe McCoy was suggesting the regeneration be handled in a flashback, not that he'd be the lead of the show for the first few episodes.
Why is that obvious? The video release of this story is 'out there' and the official BBC reconstruction of part 4 is very good.
